


sickness & health

by magicandlight



Series: The States [22]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Statetalia
Genre: Gen, Great Lakes Fam, Kinda Fluffy, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 08:37:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17977973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandlight/pseuds/magicandlight
Summary: sick fic + kinda fluff featuring the great lakes because Robin was sick





	sickness & health

_cassidy, 1811_

"I'm not sick." Cassidy protests as Cordelia tucks the blankets around him.

Michael, who's leaning up against the wall, snorts. "You know you're so congested that I barely understand you, right?"

"Fight me." Cassidy hisses at him.

Michael looks at the pile of pillows and blankets Cordelia has tucked Cass into and raises an eyebrow at her. "Maybe later, kiddo."

Cassidy sticks her tongue out at him.

_riley, 1823_

"Did you  _sleep_ on the bathroom floor?" Cass asks as she nudges him with her foot.

Riley swats at her half-heartedly. "'T's cold." He mutters defensively.

"You look gross. I'm going to get Michael."

\--------------

"Do you know how dirty that floor is? I can't believe you slept on it-"

Riley squints up accusingly at Cass. "You said you were gonna get Michael, not  _Cordelia_."

"Don't be rude to Cordelia." Michael huffs out from somewhere in the room.

Cass shrugs, unrepentant. "Cordelia always knows what to do."

Cordelia laughs, and Riley winces as she pulls him to his feet. Before he can do much more than waver uncertainly on his feet, however, Cordelia wrapping one of his arms around her shoulders. "Come on, Riley, let's get you in bed before you get sicker."

_mindy, 1857_

The cast on her arm has just come off when she breaks the other one playing with Tyler, and that one wasn't even halfway done when she breaks her collarbone trying to do a handspring with her good arm.

"It isn't that bad," she mutters when faced with Michael's flat stare.

"If you were a horse, we'd put you down." Tyler helpfully chirps.

"Tyler!" Cordelia hisses out, and Michael turns to look at him instead of Mindy. 

_riley, 1859_

"I'm gonna have to burn that sweater now," Cass informs him. "You've gone and contaminated it."

Riley swats at her half-heartedly. "Shut up."

Despite complaining about his germs, Cass doesn't move to the other couch, and she lets him tuck his feet under her leg. 

_michael, 1863_

He worries himself sick after the Battle of Gettysburg.

No one's seen Mindy, and Alfred was too delirious to locate her by personification means- even when Del and Cam were both nearly on their knees from all the pain they pulled from him.

They're both hoping she's in one of the field medical stations.

They'd picked their way through the remains of the 1st Minnesota, looking for either a body or the thrum of another state near, and found neither. Him and Cordelia come home empty handed and Del closes her eyes and exhales shakily. "We have to assume she's temporarily dead." She hesitates.

"Or?"

Del looks away. "Or in Confederate hands."

There's only so long their natural abilities to fade into the background can last. If Mindy was a prisoner of war, then there was only so long until someone noticed she was a girl, a teenager.

Michael's hands are shaking, enough for Cordelia to notice.

Cordelia mumbles something like  _excuse us_ , and Del nods, stepping aside so they can get into the hallway.

They usually split apart at the end of the hallway- Cordelia's room is in the opposite direction from his- and Cordelia makes an aborted motion to do exactly that before she turns and hugs Michael.

She's trembling a little, too, and Michael always forgets how much shorter Cordelia is than him.

Michael clings to her just as much as she clings to him.

They stay like that for what might be a minute or an hour- it's hard to tell. Michael pulls away first and Cordelia gives him a weak smile.

Neither of them tries to console the other with phrases like  _everything will be okay_  or  _Minnie's a tough girl_.

They both know they're just hollow words, and they part ways without saying anything.

_mindy, 1892_

So. Hockey when she already felt awful probably wasn't a good idea.

Tyler stops skating when he realizes she isn't with him, coming back.

Mindy pulls off her helmet so she can get air on her face, dropping it onto the ice. "Wow, Mindy, you're really pale-"

Mindy flinches away when he reaches out to put a hand on her shoulders. "Please just don't—don't touch me."

"Okay?" Tyler sounds hesitant. "You want me to go get someone for you?"

Mindy shakes her head and instantly regrets it. "No- just, I'm gonna go inside-"

Tyler scoops up her helmet. "Okay. I'll walk with you."

"No, it's- I'm fine."

Tyler gives her a look. "Honestly, you look like you're gonna pass out and I'm surprised you skated as long as you did without collapsing, so just for my peace of mind, I think I'm gonna walk with you."

Mindy huffs. "Fine."

_tyler, 1934_

Tyler refuses to let Oliver call Michael or Cordelia, and Oliver can't blame him.

They'd drop everything to get here and damn themselves in the process. The depression had hit them all hard, but Michael had lost the auto industry and Cordelia couldn't find work because she was a woman. If they came to help Tyler, they'd lose whatever work they'd found.

They don't hear a lot of news from other states. Last Oliver had heard, Kit wasn't doing too well and Addison and Theo were doing _worse_.

"You worried about Cait?" Tyler murmurs. He's ridiculous- he's the sick one and yet all he wants to ask about are the others.

Oliver tips his head back. "Yeah."

He places a hand over Tyler's forehead and winces at the heat. "I'll find you a cold compress."

_cordelia, 1952_

Cordelia has a tendency to continue life as normal when she's sick. She doesn't tell anyone until it gets bad enough that it's obvious.

Cordelia looks miserable the entire meeting, and Riley keeps shooting concerned looks at Michael, and really, he's pretty mad at her right now. She  _always_ does this, and it worries everyone else and she  _keeps_  doing it.

The second the meeting is dismissed, he goes to stand beside her, arms crossed. Cordelia spares him a glance as she packs up her bag, tossing her presentation binder and notes and pens in haphazardly, which isn't like her at all.

She wavers on her feet when she stands and Michael reflexively grabs her elbow.

Pretty much everyone feels warm to Micheal- except Mindy and Foster- because he runs a little colder than most. He always has to get Cordelia to check if someone has a fever when they can't find the thermometer.

Cordelia feels like she's burning, though, and he's pretty sure that's not normal.

Cordelia makes a pleased noise. "Your hands are cold." She murmurs and Michael's brow furrows.

"Um, okay-  _jesus_ , Cordelia." Cordelia lifts his hands to press them against her face, and yeah, she's definitely at least a little delirious.

Cordelia leans into the touch, and Michael softens slightly. "Hey, Corey, I think we need to get you home." She's uncomfortably warm to him, so he can't imagine how she must feel.

\--------------

He's mostly supporting her weight, which isn't the best since he's trying to figure out where she stuck her house key.

He finally finds it in a pot of carnations on her porch, and sighs as the door opens.

Michael presses it closed behind them, dropping his bag and Cordelia's on the couch.

Cordelia collapses bonelessly onto her bed and Michael suppresses a smile and drags her blankets over her. 

_tyler, 19_ _65_

It hurts like hell, but it's worth it. It meant he'd never have to bind again, that his shirts would lay flat on his chest, that he'd be able to look in the mirror without a pang of dysphoria. He'd do it again if this one didn't take, but Austin had sworn up and down that it should heal without regenerating the tissue, and Tyler was hoping he was right. 

"I'm thinking about getting a tattoo over the scars," He gestures at one of them, even though Mindy knows exactly what scars he's talking about. "But I feel like it'll look weird if I have something across my chest there."

Mindy shrugs. "You just have to cover one of them. Then it's not two really obvious scars, just one more mystery scar."

He smiles at her. "Yeah, that sounds smart."

Mindy smiles back. "You look good, you know. Happy."

_michael, 1973_

Cordelia is on his couch, idly reading some textbook for whatever college course has caught her eye this time, and Michael frowns at her. "What are you here for?"

She gives him an unimpressed look. "Mindy called me 'cause you're sick."

Michael frowns at her and collapses onto the other side of the couch, turning the tv on with the remote.

What feels like a short time later but must have been over an hour later- Cordelia's a quarter of the way through her textbook- Cordelia nudges him. "Your mouth breathing is just as distracting as it is gross, please go back to bed."

Michael sticks his tongue out at her, but he does go back to bed.

_cassidy, 1985_

Cass's head feels like it's going to pop like a balloon.

She pushes her plate towards Tyler and drops her head onto Riley's shoulder.

Riley looks at her oddly. "You good?"

"I've got a headache," she murmurs.

"Oh," Riley lets her lay there for a moment. "Hey, sit up for a second?"

Cass does, even though moving at all makes her feel nauseous.

Riley pulls his sweater over his head and hands it to her, because he knows she likes to be warm when she sleeps.

Cass lays her head back down on Riley's shoulder after she puts it on. It smells clean and familiar, and it helps her headache. At the very least, it doesn't make it worse.

She's asleep in minutes, and Riley gets everyone to quiet down for the rest of lunch, glaring when Mindy and Tyler start arguing until they shut up.   
  
  


_cordelia, 1994_

"I reevaluate your intelligence every time you do this," Michael says. 

Cordelia groans and pulls a pillow over her head. "Stop being loud, it's not a big deal."

"You stood up and blacked out, I think that makes it a big deal."

Cordelia sighs when she feels him settle beside her, tucking her head against his shoulder instead of the pillow. 

Michael kisses her forehead. "It's scary when you do this," He murmurs. "Don't pretend you're fine when you're sick this bad."

She struggles to stay awake. "Sorry." 

Michael runs a hand through her hair, brushing it back out of her face. "Just go to sleep, Corey."


End file.
